Route description[edit]
Except for a small portion in Alhambra, SR 19 and SR 164 are part of the National Highway System,[4] a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration.[5]
State Route 19[edit]
Lakewood Boulevard (no longer SR 19 in Long Beach) begins at the Long Beach Traffic Circle, where State Route 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) heads west and southeast, and Los Coyotes Diagonal heads northeast. It heads north past Interstate 405, passing under a runway of the Long Beach Airport.[6] (The part through the airport has been relocated to the east; parts of the old alignment remain as airport service roads.) Lakewood Boulevard (no longer SR 19 in Lakewood) passes to the west of Lakewood Center Mall before passing through the neighborhood of Mayfair.
Lakewood Boulevard passing under I-405 and the Long Beach Airport (top of image)
As the sections of SR 19 in Long Beach and Lakewood have been relinquished, SR 19 now legally begins at the city of Bellflower at the intersection of Lakewood Boulevard and Rose Street. SR 19 in Bellflower will be relinquished by the state to the city.[7] SR 19 intersects State Route 91 before straddling the city border between Bellflower and Paramount and later Bellflower and Downey. North of Gardendale Street, SR 19 has been relinquished to the city of Downey.
In Downey, Lakewood Boulevard intersects with Interstate 105 before passing by the large site formerly occupied by North American Aviation, Rockwell International and Boeing Reusable Space Systems and interchanging with Interstate 5. At Telegraph Road at the Downey-Pico Rivera line, Lakewood Boulevard turns into Rosemead Boulevard.[8] Upon changing to Rosemead Boulevard, SR 19 enters Pico Rivera. This portion of SR 19 has been relinquished to the city as well.[9] Rosemead Boulevard then continues through Pico Rivera past Pico Rivera Plaza to Gallatin Road.[10]
State Route 164[edit]
The 9.56-mile (15.39 km) piece of SR 19 north of Gallatin Road in Pico Rivera has been State Route 164 since the 1964 renumbering, but has always been signed as SR 19. Original plans for SR 164 took it southeast to Interstate 605 from the present transition between SR 164 and SR 19, and it was originally planned as the Rio Hondo Freeway. SR 164 begins as Rosemead Boulevard, leaves the city of Pico Rivera, and enters an unincorporated area.
SR 164 travels across Whittier Narrows Dam before entering the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area and intersecting with the cloverleaf interchange of State Route 60. After this, SR 164 enters South El Monte before crossing the Rio Hondo and straddling the city boundary between Rosemead and El Monte. SR 164 then intersects with Interstate 10 before passing by Rosemead Shopping Center. The next section of SR 164 was relinquished to Temple City in 2008.[11]
Upon leaving Temple City, the maintenance of SR 164 transfers to the county, for this segment of SR 164 has been relinquished.[12] Rosemead Boulevard continues north to Interstate 210. Presently, the north end of the route is at I-210 about a mile south of Sierra Madre Villa Avenue.[10] Originally planned as a freeway, it was to be the intermediate north–south freeway between I-710 (the Long Beach Freeway) and I-605 (the San Gabriel River Freeway). Today, locals generally refer to this road as either Lakewood Boulevard or Rosemead Boulevard, not by its numerical designation. It should be noted that the portion of Rosemead Blvd. between Gallatin Rd. in Pico Rivera and Interstate 10 is built to expressway standards.
Bus service is provided by Metro Local line 266 (between Foothill Boulevard and Del Amo Boulevard) and Long Beach Transit line 111 (south of Del Amo Boulevard) throughout Rosemead Boulevard and Lakewood Boulevard. The Metro Green Line is also provided by a station in the median of Interstate 105 under Lakewood Boulevard.

History[edit]
Before the present SR 19 was constructed, San Gabriel Boulevard, which extended from Lamanda Park south to Downey, and was widened and repaved by an assessment tax in 1925,[13] was the main road through the Whittier Narrows, requiring several turns to stay on it and to continue south to Long Beach.[14][15][16] The state legislature added Route 168 to the state highway system in 1933, which followed this general alignment between Route 60 (SR 1) in Long Beach and Route 9 (Foothill Boulevard, then US 66) near Lamanda Park.[17][18]
SR 19 was designated out of the 1964 state highway renumbering. However, since then, many segments of SR 19 have been relinquished to the cities that they run through. Caltrans relinquished Long Beach's portion of SR 19 to the city on January 27, 1999,[6] and Downey's segment of SR 19 was relinquished to the city on July 3, 2001.[8] However, the segment in Pico Rivera was not relinquished to that city until June 22, 2004.[9] On October 27, 2006, the northern portion of SR 164 that went through an unincorporated area of the county from Callita Street to I-210 was relinquished to the county.[12] In April 2008, the section of SR 164 through Temple City was relinquished to that city.[11] On April 9, 2012, the section of SR 19 through Lakewood was relinquished to that city[19]. In 2017, the relinquishment process in Bellflower has started.[7]